Growing up, there were pictures all over the walls of our house that always appeared to me to be color photographs, even if the color didn't look the same as the type of color you'd see in your average snapshot.

There was a baby picture of my sister, a picture of my sister and I that was taken out in New Mexico when I was three and she was nine, a picture of my mom when she graduated from the University of Louisville in 1954 or maybe 1955, and the photos you see above of Mom and Dad the day they got engaged in 1957.

That day, they'd gone to my grandmother's photography studio to share their news and the first thing she (my grandmother) did was take their pictures. She wanted one of each--companion pieces.

But, as most photos were in 1957, they were black and white photos. So my grandmother did what she had done with that U of L graduation picture. She "painted" them. Actually, I don't know why I put "painted" in quotes in that last sentence other than the fact that what she did isn't what you'd typically think when you heard someone say they'd painted a picture.

Yeah, she painted over the photograph.

That's why all the photos I've mentioned have a sort of pastel quality to them. I don't know if this was a common practice in those days because I know very little, if anything, about the history of photography.

But I've always thought it was cool and makes the pictures unique.

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